The Chinese Three Kingdoms warrior Zhang Fei

This nineteenth-century color woodblock print ([nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e)) by Utagawa Yoshiume, dated by the Library of Congress to the 1860s and held in its Japanese woodblock print holdings (identifier 00677v), depicts the Chinese Three Kingdoms warrior Zhang Fei (張飛, Japanese Chōhi), one of the three sworn brothers of the Sanguozhi yanyi (The Romance of the Three Kingdoms). Zhang Fei is portrayed in a full-length view, facing left, carrying a staff and walking through snow in a manner derived from the warrior-print conventions established by Yoshiume's teacher, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, in his celebrated series of Suikoden and Three Kingdoms portraits of the 1820s and 1830s. The Three Kingdoms narrative had been popularized in Japan through Edo-period adaptations of the Chinese vernacular novel, and figures such as Zhang Fei and his brother Liu Bei became staples of Japanese popular literature, kabuki, and woodblock printing. Yoshiume's print represents the way the Kuniyoshi [musha-e](/glossary/musha-e) tradition was transmitted into the Osaka kamigata-e context and adapted for the Osaka print audience of the 1860s. The print is part of the Library of Congress's collection of Japanese woodblock prints, one of the most important holdings of its kind in the United States.